s w i f t s  &  s l o w s: a quarterly of crisscrossings

Poems from a Pandemic
Jim Leftwich, John Crouse, John M. Bennett

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book 3 begins here

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 1:48 PM
to JOHN, john

myth flecks titled bole
myth flecks wailing lung
myth flecks slantstep sink
myth flecks metallic sun

John Bennett
12:25 PM (16 minutes ago)

to me, john

my neck tit sole
my neck wall hung
my neck pants stink
my neck’s attic gun

John Crouse
Sat, May 16, 5:19 PM
to me, JOHN

Time resurrects tidied carol

Rhyme snicker jailing cling
Rime steppe skating rink

Thyme dreck vatic shun

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 2:39 PM
to John, JOHN

timepiece

tome roaming lime rhythms
insurrects naked wicker
steeply peppers wreckage
of a deck titled mailboxes
katydid emphatic coal mine
lingers like the stinking sun
book 3 #5

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 1:49 PM
to JOHN, john

Spiro Agnew

touchy
dawn
wool

made in the
shade, in
China

Sam & Spiro
tuning-fork
kitchen aleph, all
bets off

how
now
cow

Sam and Spiro
sand dune real estate
bubble

John Crouse
2:58 PM (0 minutes ago)

to me, John

Ting Anew

Touchdown Sam
Swollen gnome
maid busts cyclists
Sam gets a haircut
turning alphabets
heats of the knights
Cow jumped over Sam
Sam he is wet hey
dunno apace aglow
stubble blurbs ado

book 3 #6

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 1:49 PM
to john, JOHN

Our inner clock

Bathyphase

chronobiological
ad libitum
ectothermic Diapause

John Crouse

3:00 PM (0 minutes ago)
to John, me
Bee in clock
wind the slack
steam a tie
hug yr hutch

crimp song salty
ectothermic sinistral
mean plainspeaking walk
seamless eyes
bricolage plus two

John Crouse

3:01 PM (0 minutes ago)
to me, John
pinp pong sally
the pine siskin
mansplain auk
teeming I
cabbage in lieu

Mill Town Postmodern

luck a gate latchkey mind.
what harm the bleeding wedge?
talented hibernacula,

coco-puffs creatine creationist.
lung, at lately, wing.
wing, not lately, lung.
teammates fuzzy
logicians / tuna
fish, turning blue. news at 10.

John Crouse

3:05 PM (0 minutes ago)
to me, John
Drill-down Poseidon

Clucking ingrate key and rind
butts alm reed edge

Tainted muff careen
sung atlatl swing
timed frizzy bumblebee imbue alone

book 3 #7

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 1:49 PM
to john, JOHN

the other moth

fact is, an aerial lack. slot
canyons, without
pencils. Infradian whistles
typewriter, west of Asia,
in the garment district.

John Crouse
3:07 PM (0 minutes ago)

to me, John

mother

actuarial slacks
blot of
pigpens
chiseling hangover
the wisteria garlands

book 3 #9

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 1:50 PM
to john, JOHN

fungible chainsaws

hair stubble cairn unless
tweaking hewn anew
nycthemeral whiffle balls
aspirin / cut the icicle
in half, thank you / if
quadruple, then square
root / squid pro quote,
paraffin, noctilucent

John Crouse
3:11 PM (0 minutes ago)

to me, John

frangible hacksaw

care bubble careless teak whew
baffled bustards all-in
cuticle quads squalid

quid grand muffin luster

book 3 #10

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 1:50 PM
to JOHN, john

melting topples wind
chimes smelt
rickety shin bone

John Crouse
3:13 PM (0 minutes ago)

to me, John

pelt tipples when tin
smelt tricked tin when

book 3 #12

Jim Leftwich <jimleftwich@gmail.com>
Sat, May 16, 1:51 PM
to john, JOHN

hold the combs

Blummering, range of entrainment —
Wingedict, thermotactic —
Keepsnake, self-sustaining oscillation —
lava —
cooking school —
Meet and Greek.

John Crouse
3:21 PM (0 minutes ago)

to me, John

Holy Comfit

Bummer was the seize grub that’s the rub
winged bassoon gnosis plunder-land
keep wheezing, teases out of breath
lever bunco eyebrow pencil in deep
booked munching weeknights collard
grief.